Island Hopping in Coron, Palawan, Philippines

As I mentioned in a prior post, we’d recently holidayed in Coron, Palawan in the Philippines. Having set-up base in town, we’d organised a tour with our hotel. My brother had specced out and booked a fantastic itinerary of island hopping that didn’t just include a guide and a bangka (an outrigger) but also food and snorkelling.

The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands and Palawan itself is comprised of more than a hundred islands. South of Coron, there were many lakes, lagoons and beaches to see.
Here’s a selection (in non-chronological order) of some of the places we visited.

We started one of the days with a morning hike up Mount Tapyas to catch the sunrise. According to our guide, Mount Tapyas was named so after a section of it was chipped off (natapyas) by artillery during WWII. The steps (784, our guide said) is cemented the entire way and can easily be done in 20 minutes or less than 10 if you want to work up a sweat.

From Coron Bay, we boarded our bangka.

One of our first snorkelling destinations was Siete Pecados, where corals abound between the seven rock formations. Folklore says that it’s called Siete Pecados after seven sisters disobeyed their parents, who forbade their trysts. The sisters drowned after sneaking out to meet their lovers and the rock formations rose up from their graves.

Besides being pretty above water, corals and fish where abundant below.

After ownership of Coron Island was returned by the government to its ancestral owners, the Tagbanua people, the owners have attempted to uphold the sustainability and preservation of their land. It’s pristine state is what made our next stop, Lake Kayangan, one of my highlights for the entire trip.

Our guide paid the entry fee of 200 pesos (most of the protected lakes and lagoons have them) and we began our ascent up a narrow path of steps toward the lake. There’re wooden railings or cemented steps at the hardest sections. Halfway up, there’s a magnificent lookout of the cove where we’d moored our bangka.

On the other side of the hill, you’ll behold a view of the bluest, clearest lake you’ve ever seen.

And if that wasn’t enough, we swam the warm brackish water and explored one of the nearby underwater caves.

We also visited a Coral Park, where they (apparently!) safely transported corals from the outer reef to this shallower area. It’s a visual feast. From a boat, you can clearly see the corals 3 metres below, clearer still while snorkelling.

There were heaps of giant clams.

We also visited the Lusong Shipwreck on one of the days. A Japanese vessel sunk during WWII on shallow waters, it is easily visible while snorkelling.